[1.12.5] Bluedog Design Bureau - Stockalike Saturn, Apollo, and more! (v1.14.0 "металл" 30/Sep/2024)

[Zorg]

4 hours ago, DaveyJ576 said:

So, I have been working the Saturn revamp branch, experimenting with some Apollo Applications Project (AAP) concepts. The first part is related to mission AAP-1A, which was the first scheduled mission for AAP, to have taken place some time in 1969. It obviously never flew.

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The docked experiment carrier is a kitbash of this official concept:

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It was essentially a framework to which various cameras and sensors were attached, and it had a conical pressurized section in the center that served as a control station for the experiments.  My kitbash is a little smaller than the real one would have been. It is a combination of a Mercury capsule and Coatl's Surveyor bus. I then slapped on a variety of experiments. Not an accurate recreation by any means, but close enough for government work.

I am now working on the Wet Workshop. Below is my recreation of the ATM for the AAP program.

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Does anyone have an idea of how to attach this to the SLA? Without a node on the bottom you have to do a lot of adjustments. The existing framework options that @CobaltWolfadded helps, but there is still no way of attaching it to the SLA. 

the sizing doesnt quite work. iirc the telescope itself for wetlab was based on a descent module shell while the final one looks like it grew a bit compared to that. A different model that respects the descent module footprint is needed for a free flying LM ATM and I plan to make one for phase 2 of skylab parts. 

As such I dont plan to officially support the historical version with nodes for this purpose.

[Galileo chiu]

so the saturn revamp is not included in the newest version on spacedock?

[davidy12]

7 minutes ago, Galileo chiu said:

so the saturn revamp is not included in the newest version on spacedock?

No. Gotta go to GitHub to get it.

[Galileo chiu]

But can I add the saturn revamp parts into the new release?

[Jcking]

6 minutes ago, Galileo chiu said:

But can I add the saturn revamp parts into the new release?

The Apollo Saturn revamp is still in development, and the parts associated with it will be officially released in a separate update.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Jcking

[pTrevTrevs]

Apollo 14: An Early Visit to Taurus-Littrow:

[Author's Note]: In our timeline, had the Apollo 13 landing successfully explored the Fra Mauro formation, Alan Shepard's Apollo 14 crew would have landed near Littrow crater, specifically at a point a little west-northwest of it on the edge of Mare Serenitatis. After *the incident*, Apollo mission planners decided that Fra Mauro was a more geologically-important site, given its potential yield of old pre-Imbrium material, and so the original H-3 Littrow landing site went unused. Since KSP does not model oxygen tank explosions and jury-rigged LiOH canisters, however, I had no such complication with '13's mission. Because of that I'm free to explore the original Apollo 14 landing site at will, except I figured that landing at H-3 Littrow would mean abandoning Taurus-Littrow on Apollo 17, which in my mind was unacceptable. The small valley in the Taurus mountains is one of the most geologically intriguing sites on the lunar near side, perhaps second only to Hadley Rille, and I'll sink this entire space program into the ground before I let it go unvisited. That orange soil is mine, dammit! Anyway, I've tried to contrive an in-universe explanation for the change in landing sites, since I guess I'm basically writing these in a style echoing ETS or Ocean of Storms now.

 

     While the crew of Aquarius explored the Fra Mauro highlands in April of 1970, their command module pilot aboard Odyssey exploited his unprecedented time alone in lunar orbit to perform the first detailed orbital geological studies of the Moon. Equipped with top-notch training from renowned geologist Farouk El-Kerman, Apollo 13's CMP arrived in lunar orbit more prepared than any of his predecessors to examine the mysterious terrain of the Moon from above. During one of his passes over the Taurus Mountains, on the edge of Mare Serenitatis, the pilot found himself staring intently at a peculiar valley between two large massifs. Lunar highland material spilled down from the peaks onto the valley floor, but much of it was still covered in the smooth, dark mare material seen further west in Serenitatis proper. What's more, this valley displayed telltale signs of volcanic activity, raising new questions about the region's geological history. While the Apollo 14 mission slated for October of that year was already preparing to visit a site a little north of this area, its crew quickly agreed to the switch upon examining Odyssey's developed film and photographs of the area. Only six months remained before launch at this time, but the crew charged headfirst into a new round of training to learn the new mission, practicing everything from the more strenuous travel across the hilly massifs to the steeper descent profile necessary to clear the mountains on the way in. By launch day these three astronauts had easily become the world's top authorities on this small patch of lunar terrain that had been virtually unknown less than a year prior. Apollo 14's commander could not be blamed for his overzealousness; after spending the last five years on medical suspension due to a disease of the inner ear, Jebediah Kerman was eager to get back in the pilot's seat. Besides the return of its noteworthy commander, Apollo 14 features a number of interesting peculiarities which have been included to help bridge the gap between the so-called "H" missions, of which Apollo 14 would be the last, and the upcoming "J" missions. The command module Kitty-Hawk was loaded down with more propellant and consumables than any previous moonship, and was also equipped with the unique Hycon camera, a modified aerial reconnaissance camera designed to be mounted in the circular window of the command module's hatch. The Hycon was electrically operated, designed to compensate for the spacecraft's orbital velocity, and could obtain higher-resolution topographic images of the lunar surface than any camera previously flown onboard a manned spacecraft. During the mission it would be used to image future landing sites, specifically Descartes. On future missions the Hycon would be replaced by yet more powerful cameras in the command module's SIM bay. All things considered, the new equipment and competent crew made for an excellent lineup to end the first act of Apollo lunar surface exploration.

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Part 1:

Due to Taurus-Littrow's high latitude and the mid-autumn launch date, Apollo 14 necessitated a launch window set several hours before dawn, marking the first nighttime launch of a Saturn V, and indeed the first manned night launch in NASA history. Enticed by this unique spectacle, thousands crowded the nearby beaches to witness the launch.

Now added to the list of "Things That Happened But Which I'm Too Lazy to Recreate", the Apollo 14 docking incident. Antares is coming with me whether she likes it or not.

Of course, as is standard now, the S-IVB stage is sent crashing into the Moon to provide data to the ALSEP seismometers. Once the Apollo 14 station is deployed at Littrow, future lunar impacts will be detected on all three seismometers on the surface, allowing the point of impact to be precisely triangulated according to each sensor's data.

Apollo 14 is the first of my lunar missions to not make use of a full free-return trajectory due to its remote location. Instead the spacecraft traveled on a so-called hybrid trajectory, not quite free-return but capable of being corrected to one in case of emergency. Apollo 13 was on such a trajectory when its accident happened in OTL.

Another first for '14's mission is the use of Kitty-Hawk's SPS to place the combined spacecraft into the lunar descent orbit. Previous missions' LMs all landed with a mere sliver of fuel remaining in their descent tanks, and the already-slim margins will only become tighter as the J-missions introduce heavier equipment loads. To compensate for this, Apollo 14 is testing a new technique which will save some DPS fuel at the expense of the Service Module. As a fortunate side effect, this also allows the command module cameras to obtain images from a much lower altitude, a circumstance which will be enormously beneficial to the Hycon camera.

Compared to previous flights, Antares's pitchover comes early, in order to level out the descent rate to avoid the Taurus Mountains. As the grey landscape comes into view once more, the astronauts are greeted with a magnificent view of the valley, sprawling across their field of view, opening up to the vast Sea of Serenity in the distance.

Shortly after, Antares comes to rest on a slight slope almost exactly midway between the North and South Massifs. This is a few kilometers west of the historical Apollo 17 landing site, which was positioned to provide access to the nearby Sculptured Hills as well as the Massifs. I chose a more westerly location in order to obtain science data from both the lunar lowlands biome (to the east) and the Serenitatis biome (to the west). Without the luxury of an LRV, anything I collect will need to be reached on foot.

EVA 1 kicks off almost immediately after landing. Apollo 14 has a tight schedule to uphold if it is to get the most out of the Taurus-Littrow valley. Limited by the astronaut's own foot-mobility and their restrictive life-support budgets, much of what this valley holds will remain frustratingly out of reach.

Of course, the first half of this EVA is business as usual; contingency sample, ALSEP, flag, plaque, et cetera. Only after around thirty minutes of this practically-routine work do the astronauts begin their long-distance exploration with a hike to the North Massif.

Although appearing steep from a distance, the North Massif is surprisingly easy to climb, and with minimal effort the crew have arrived at a small shelf offering a commanding view of their surroundings. They take a moment to photograph and sample the terrain before returning downhill to the LM.

While still challenging, the more easily distinguished terrain of Littrow has given Jebediah and his LMP a much easier time reaching their objectives than the crew of Apollo 13 had at Cone Crater. Tomorrow they will test their limits again, exploring the South Massif and the western entrance to the valley, hoping to obtain material from the nearby Mare Serenitatis.

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Part 2:

Meanwhile, the CMP aboard Kitty-Hawk continues his observations, seen here photographing Tsiolkovsky. This iconic farside crater is quickly gaining interest from the geology teams, who are still lobbying aggressively for a farside landing near its central peak. Satisfied with the hitherto unbridled success of the Apollo landings, NASA administration has given tentative approval for studies involving a landing here on either Apollo 17 or 18.

Kitty-Hawk has actually remained in the descent orbit for a few hours after the landing to exploit the unique advantages it offers her photography equipment. Now, I can't actually remember which region of the moon these photos show, but I'm going to assume the top is Mare Imbrium and the bottom is Descartes. Don't really have any evidence to back that up, but it seems right to me.

On an unrelated note, here is a low-altitude orbital photograph of Antares's landing site. The large peak just to the right and bottom of center is the South Massif.

Back on the surface, EVA 2 has just begun. Today's excursion will be more heavily focused on geology than yesterday's, beginning with a visit to a crater a short way to the south.

On the outbound trip, the crew note the stark difference between the steep, rocky terrain of the North Massif and the smooth, forgiving ground on the valley floor. The contrast here is much more noticeable than on Earth's valleys of comparable size, where often much flat floors are practically nonexistent. Or so I've been told, I live on the Gulf Coast and see real mountains about once every four years.

One thing that isn't smooth, however, is the rim of this crater. Houston quickly shoots down a suggestion to climb inside it.

The South Massif appears slightly farther away than it first appeared, but it's still within walking distance. In no time, the two moonwalkers are perched a few hundred feet above the valley floor.

The slope here is much higher than on the North Massif. The astronauts now struggle to gain ground as it rises ever higher.

Anyway, what kind of space enthusiast would I be if I didn't play golf on Apollo 14? I was gonna hit the ball down into the valley, but Jeb kind of turned and drove it further up the mountainside. Guess in hindsight he might have wanted to avoid hitting the LM...

With that little celebratory moment complete, the astronauts now turn east and start descending the massif by a different route.

Before the final leg of their trip, they stop by the ALSEP and do a final checkup on its systems.

The pair then head westward toward the valley entrance and Serenitatis proper. By this they plan to collect a variety of material from around the area, ranging from the light highland debris to the dark and powdery mare regolith.

Along the way, they come across a rock that seems particularly out of place. Given its light color when compared to the surrounding area, it is suspected to be a piece of highland breccia, thrown into the valley by some kind of impact. Post-flight analysis of the samples returned from this boulder would conclude that it had originated in Littrow crater itself, and was thrown lose by the impact which caused it. Oddly enough, Apollo 14 managed to recover a sample from its original landing site around fifty kilometers from where it should have been.

Their prizes in hand, the astronauts make their way back to the LM and step off the lunar surface. With liftoff scheduled for a few hours from now, they will have little time for rest between now and the docking with Kitty-Hawk.

And again, from here on out there's little to report on that hasn't been seen several times already. Typical ascent, rendezvous, docking, jettison, and TEI. Hardly fascinating, but at least I try to get unique photos on each mission.

I can also brag that with the help of MechJeb landing guidance, I've just about nailed the targeted lunar reentry. With a little fidgeting with maneuver nodes I'm able to splash down in the Pacific Ocean south of Hawaii pretty much every time. Maybe one day I'll hyperedit a recover ship out there in advance and try to land within visual range of it.

 

With this report I've actually caught up to myself. I haven't flown Apollo 15 yet, but hopefully I can get to it this week. I was able to make a personal modification to Grimmas's BDB Kerbalism patch to fix the animations on some of the SIM bay instruments (literally just had to add the parts to the list in the file that fixes animations for things like the MESA pallet). Next AAR will probably be on the various satellite launches that have happened. Pioneer 10 went up earlier today, DSP-1 last night, and Jumpseat about a week before that. 

[braxfortex]

Noticed some craft files need updating for the 1.9.0 release:

Atlas SLV-3X:  check your staging
Atlas V 431:  is referencing a missing bluedog.Centaur.RL10A41
Augustus ORV:   is using a deprecated nose cone (just below the cap)
Delta D (TAD):  is referencing a missing bluedog.Sargent.3xDecoupler
Delta III-8240:  is referencing a missing bluedog.Centaur.RL10B2
Delta M+ HOSS:  is referencing a missing bluedog.Centaur.RL10
Mercury Atlas :  more staging issues
Saturn I:  is referencing a missing bluedog.Centaur.RL10
Saturn M43:  is referencing missing bluedog.Centaur.EngineMountA, bluedog.Centaur.Avionics, and bluedog.Centaur.RL10
Thor Agena A:  has 2 fairings, both the stock style and SAF
Thor Agena D:  fairing staging needs adjustment
Thorad-Agena SLV-2G:  staging
Titan 3L2:  staging
Titan IVB:  staging (booster separation rockets)

There may be more staging issues, as I was tired when I went through these.  Also, the Saturn ones are probably not an issue with the new revamped parts coming soon.
Hopefully this helps.

[Kunosheru]

"пробе"? why пробе? 

[KeaKaka]

2 minutes ago, Kunosheru said:

"пробе"? why пробе? 

Just a guess, but пробе is probe in Russian and this has been a primarily probe focused update.

[GoldForest]

3 hours ago, Kunosheru said:

"пробе"? why пробе? 

 

3 hours ago, KeaKaka said:

Just a guess, but пробе is probe in Russian and this has been a primarily probe focused update.

This, plus it's a running joke, iirc, that BDB words are in Russian. 

Edited December 14, 2021 by GoldForest

[OrdinaryKerman]

3 hours ago, Kunosheru said:

"пробе"? why пробе? 

BDB semi-canon explanation: Wherever the manufacturer is based, the kerbals write English with the Cyrillic alphabet

[Invaderchaos]

8 hours ago, KeaKaka said:

Just a guess, but пробе is probe in Russian and this has been a primarily probe focused update.

Correct, but I wouldn’t say it’s in Russian, its just the word “Probe” in the Cyrillic alphabet.

The running joke is that Tantares (the mod with Russian based parts) uses English, and BDB (US based not) uses the Cyrillic alphabet.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Invaderchaos

[dave1904]

10 hours ago, braxfortex said:

Atlas V 431:  is referencing a missing bluedog.Centaur.RL10A41

why do you specifically say 431? Is there a difference between the Atlas V centaur 3 engines? I always assumed they were 100% the same. I am aware 4 is fairing 3 are srbs and 1 is how many rl10s

Edited December 14, 2021 by dave1904

[dave1904]

Why can I not find the Saturn V Stage 2 ullage motors anymore? My saturn saves wont load atm. I can build the rocket no prob but I really loved those ullage motors. The ones that go on the interstage. 

NVM. Something went wrong with updating. That a single part was missing is something that has never happend to me. 

Edited December 14, 2021 by dave1904

[Starhelperdude]

13 minutes ago, dave1904 said:

why do you specifically say 431? Is there a difference between the Atlas V centaur 3 engines? I always assumed they were 100% the same. I am aware 4 is fairing 3 are srbs and 1 is how many rl10s

well, there are atleast 2 variants that are used on atlas 5: Rl-10A4-N, aka the small extending one, and RL-10C1 aka the biggest non-extending one

I have no idea when which one is used on what variant but I know that DEC uses A4-N because C1 doesn't fit on the Dual Centaur Mount

[dave1904]

3 minutes ago, Starhelperdude said:

well, there are atleast 2 variants that are used on atlas 5: Rl-10A4-N, aka the small extending one, and RL-10C1 aka the biggest non-extending one

I have no idea when which one is used on what variant but I know that DEC uses A4-N because C1 doesn't fit on the Dual Centaur Mount

Ok nice to know. I thought they were all C1. I have never used the dual engine one except for the old centaurs. 

[Araym]

I post again the link to my "very unofficial", but also "very under development", BDBINC, with all of my new recolors for the upcoming "apollo-saturn-revamp".

IF you are recently downloaded it, and experiencing some B9PartSwitch errors, it very likely because I have a single repository (pending to know the final status of BDB, once the new parts will be released) both aimed at the "master" branch/release 1.9.0 (with the old Apollo and Saturn parts) and the "apollo-saturn-revamp" one (with all the new related stuff).

There is no need to re-download it, but just read the first page where I put some "Notes" to how handle my repository, based on which dev version you are using, if you are experiencing some B9PartSwitch errors on game start-up (it is nothing game breaking, but surelly it could be annoying):

https://github.com/Araym-KSP/BDBNIC

Edited December 14, 2021 by Araym

[lemon cup]

22 hours ago, pTrevTrevs said:

These are awesome!

1. The kerbals frolicking together is just pure gold, do you use EVA Follower to get these shots?

2. I actually really enjoyed the narrative here, along with the context from your successful rendition of Apollo 13. There's a ton of neat facts that I did not know about these missions.

Keep up the great work.

[pTrevTrevs]

2 hours ago, lemon cup said:

These are awesome!

1. The kerbals frolicking together is just pure gold, do you use EVA Follower to get these shots?

2. I actually really enjoyed the narrative here, along with the context from your successful rendition of Apollo 13. There's a ton of neat facts that I did not know about these missions.

Keep up the great work.

Thanks, I do use EVA Follower for the surface traverse shots. Starting next mission it’ll probably be featured a lot less since I’ll have the LRV to use instead.

If you like these narrative-style mission reports, you should read A Man on the Moon by Andrew Chaikin. It’s where I first learned about lots of the little anecdotes I try to write in, and it also made up the backbone of the source material for HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon.

[DaveyJ576]

Has anyone tried to launch a Wet Workshop using the Saturn IB? I am having no luck at all in KSRSS. Workshop is built to the specs put out by Friznit. I have tried every reasonable combination of Saturn IB engines, all of the H-1 variants up to the H-2FT, and even tried a 1st stage stretch. For the workshop I have tried three different variants of the J-2. I have even tried to change out the SAF fairing for the buildable one. I reduced the exterior experiments to zero and reduced docking ports to just three. Both stages have full fuel. TWR on the 1st stage with eight H-2FT is 1.77, but TWR for 2nd stage is only .57, even with the J-2A-2 

Using MechJeb PVG and a periapsis of between 105 and 115 km. Inclination between 30 and 40. Pitch starts at 90 m/s. Staging is occuring between 18k and 21k, and quite often it tumbles once before regaining the proper flight path. The stack struggles to get to 105 km apoapsis but runs out of fuel long before the periapsis gets above the ground. MechJeb is holding a high angle of attack for the whole ascent because it isn't getting to the desired target apoapsis, and therefore the speed over ground necessary to lift the periapsis to an orbital point never develops.

Am I missing something? Or is something borked?

[Zorg]

28 minutes ago, DaveyJ576 said:

Has anyone tried to launch a Wet Workshop using the Saturn IB? I am having no luck at all in KSRSS. Workshop is built to the specs put out by Friznit. I have tried every reasonable combination of Saturn IB engines, all of the H-1 variants up to the H-2FT, and even tried a 1st stage stretch. For the workshop I have tried three different variants of the J-2. I have even tried to change out the SAF fairing for the buildable one. I reduced the exterior experiments to zero and reduced docking ports to just three. Both stages have full fuel. TWR on the 1st stage with eight H-2FT is 1.77, but TWR for 2nd stage is only .57, even with the J-2A-2 

Using MechJeb PVG and a periapsis of between 105 and 115 km. Inclination between 30 and 40. Pitch starts at 90 m/s. Staging is occuring between 18k and 21k, and quite often it tumbles once before regaining the proper flight path. The stack struggles to get to 105 km apoapsis but runs out of fuel long before the periapsis gets above the ground. MechJeb is holding a high angle of attack for the whole ascent because it isn't getting to the desired target apoapsis, and therefore the speed over ground necessary to lift the periapsis to an orbital point never develops.

Am I missing something? Or is something borked?

New skylab parts havent really had a proper balance pass yet tbh. Just some rough adjustments I did. I'll take a look when I'm back home (next month) unless JSO does a pass before then.

[Jcking]

30 minutes ago, DaveyJ576 said:

Has anyone tried to launch a Wet Workshop using the Saturn IB? I am having no luck at all in KSRSS. Workshop is built to the specs put out by Friznit. I have tried every reasonable combination of Saturn IB engines, all of the H-1 variants up to the H-2FT, and even tried a 1st stage stretch. For the workshop I have tried three different variants of the J-2. I have even tried to change out the SAF fairing for the buildable one. I reduced the exterior experiments to zero and reduced docking ports to just three. Both stages have full fuel. TWR on the 1st stage with eight H-2FT is 1.77, but TWR for 2nd stage is only .57, even with the J-2A-2 

Using MechJeb PVG and a periapsis of between 105 and 115 km. Inclination between 30 and 40. Pitch starts at 90 m/s. Staging is occuring between 18k and 21k, and quite often it tumbles once before regaining the proper flight path. The stack struggles to get to 105 km apoapsis but runs out of fuel long before the periapsis gets above the ground. MechJeb is holding a high angle of attack for the whole ascent because it isn't getting to the desired target apoapsis, and therefore the speed over ground necessary to lift the periapsis to an orbital point never develops.

Am I missing something? Or is something borked?

The regular wet workshop is a bit to heavy at the moment for Saturn Ib (20 tons dry, 41 tons wet), compared to the dry lab (19.8 tons), and the VFB wet workshop (7 tons dry, 28 tons wet)

[Invaderchaos]

Soon…

[Galileo chiu]

7 hours ago, Jcking said:

The regular wet workshop is a bit to heavy at the moment for Saturn Ib (20 tons dry, 41 tons wet), compared to the dry lab (19.8 tons), and the VFB wet workshop (7 tons dry, 28 tons wet)

will the 1C work?

[KeaKaka]

Thor SLV2A and Quill

Spoiler